As established by various studies, it is recognized that cholesterol and triglycerides play a major role in the formulation of artherosclerotic plaques by accelerating the deposition of blood lipids in the arterial wall.
Various compounds related to benzoic acid have been described as having hypolipidemic activity or as being useful in the treatment of heart disease. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,716,644; 3,732,295; 3,707,549; 3,369,025; and 3,652,646. Foreign references to hypolipidemic compounds or those useful for the treatment of heart disease may be found in CA82:43070h (German Offen. 2,316,914); Belgian 815,703; Japanese 7,333,742 and 7,333,743; CA82:16563q; CA80:133072y and CA80:133073z.
Reference to (3,5-di-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyphenylthio) acetic esters used as antioxidants may be found in the unexamined Japanese application 9,072,229. Other references of interest may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,681,363 and 3,383,411.